This is an archive article published on August 26, 2023

Opinion Express View on Jadavpur University student death: End ragging

This incident must make colleges and universities pause. They need to adhere to SC, UGC rules against bullying

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The transition from school to college or university is a critical phase in the life of students, many of whom — like the first-year JU student — come from small towns and rural areas.

By: Editorial

August 26, 2023 10:50 AM IST First published on: Aug 26, 2023 at 09:10 AM IST

The suspected suicide of a first-year Jadavpur University (JU) student has cast the spotlight on the culture of torture and abuse that often passes off as a coming-of-age ritual on the country’s campuses. The 18-year old’s family has alleged that he was subjected to ragging — by all accounts, a mild term to describe the humiliation and coercion senior students inflict on young entrants to colleges and universities.

The university and the police are conducting investigations and 12 people, including JU students and alumni, have been arrested. The law will, of course, take its course in this case. But it’s high time that education administrators and student bodies come together to find ways to end the sadistic practice that has been psychologically scarring youngsters for decades.

The transition from school to college or university is a critical phase in the life of students, many of whom — like the first-year JU student — come from small towns and rural areas. Their excitement at entering the portals of institutions that promise social mobility is often tempered by nervousness in an unfamiliar milieu. It’s up to the universities to make sure that this experience is not overwhelming. But they have not always been up to this task.

Reports in the JU case have highlighted that students who have long graduated continue to occupy hostel rooms and bully new entrants. In several other institutes, seniorism combines with caste, class and gender privileges to make life difficult for first-year students — even after two verdicts of the Supreme Court.

In 2001, the Court asked higher educational institutions (HEIs) to set up proctoral committees and create internal mechanisms to address complaints against ragging. Then, in 2009, after a 19-year-old medical student was tortured to death by his seniors, the SC constituted a committee headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan to deal with the issue of ragging. The panel’s recommendations were accepted by the UGC the same year.

The regulator asked HEIs to set up a committee comprising faculty, administrators and students and “promote healthy interaction between freshers and seniors”. However, the continuing cases of bullying in these institutions suggest that these norms are either not being adhered to or not being implemented effectively. The regulator has noted that JU’s response to its query on the 18-year-old student’s death did not have details on the preventive measures taken to eliminate incidents of ragging.

According to an RTI response by the UGC this month, 25 students committed suicide since 2018 because they were ragged. Enough is enough. HEIs must crack down on this brutishness, adhere to SC and UGC norms.